[Slings and Arrows]

If there is a danger to our soldiers, I hope that it is dealt with quickly. The strength of the evidence described in the article, though, is a smidgen above Urban Legend.

[evolved_rage]

Gosh, I hope Rice, Rumsfeld and Tenet resign because of this. When did Bush know???

[Old Sarge]

If this report is accurate, and it comes out as true, then Feinstein will have actually supported the soldiers in deed, not just word.

Go Figure.

[aimhigh]

Who needs terrorists. The military establishment has always put pharmeceutical company profits ahead of our soldiers.

[dr_who_2]

Most news outlets over here are a cause of permanent brain damage.

[1066AD]

Many of the antimalarials are pretty potent. I've taken mefloquine/Lariam without any problems but it was for a few weeks only. Problem is that the mosquitos develop immunities so the drugs needed for prevention get stronger too. Bring back DDT and zap those mozzies !

[lizma]

Did some googling and it appears an estimate 25 million people on this planet have taken this drug and it been around for four decades.

You would have thought that if it were poison someone would have noticed before now but thank God that Feinstein found the monster under the bed that Bush callously ignored when he was in Jr. High.

Now to honor her valiant effort, please look the other way as she votes to slash military pay in half.

[First_Salute]

The __quine class of drugs --- developed originally for fighting malaria long ago --- can damage your nervous system, and the patient is supposed to be warned to be on the lookout for a variety of nervous system reactions.

These drugs are popularly used in the jungle, for knocking out parasites that are usually found in the water.

The determining factor seems to be the kind of liver that you have, and how it metabolizes, given what you have ingested.

Generally, if I recall this correctly, these drugs break down to a point where in some people, the breakdown continues, but in other people, the breakdown of the drug hangs up and a larger than "what is good for you" level accumulates, attacking your nerves.

Basically, its a form of alcohol at that stage, acting as a a corrosive that eats away at the protection of your nerves' covering(s).

Something like that.

Happened to me, and it was rough going. Can take a few years for the nerves to heal up, but they can with rest and generally taking good care of yourself.

One of the more frightening "side effects," was when, after taking the drug for about 40 hours, I simply stepped off a curb and was "blindsided" by a shower of stars.

I knew, because I'd heard of something like this before, that the drug was attacking my retinae.

So I stopped taking that darned drug, Quinacrine.

Later, I barely made it through a course of Flagyl.

This is just a guess, but based upon what I had to read up on long ago, the gist of it is, that if you have a high tolerance for drinking alcohol, you probably will not have much trouble with such drugs.

If you have a low tolerance for drinking alcohol, stay close to the doc who issued the drug, with which you are trying to knock out that jungle bug.

Stay away from the jungle and even the desert, where the parasites roam.

Final note: If you have had your gall bladder removed, the problems above are several times worse. That is because bile fluid travels further into your small bowel in larger concentrations, and so along with it, go the parasites.

Don't let the bed bugs bite!

[ebersole]

As a family member of one of the soldiers (we are both staunch Republicans and it makes my skin crawl to see a Demoncrat use it politically) in the article, I wish it were only urban legend. The larger question to the Pentagon is why would a strong malaria medication with known and documented psychiatric side effects be used in a region of the world where there is little to no malaria. Most of the damage to the soldiers mentioned is in the brain stem region. Essentially the medication eats away the brain stem and most prominently attacks the 8th cranial nerve. However, several soldiers not mentioned in this article, have widespread damage based on EEG studies. I hope the damage is limited and only reported in the 10 soldiers. I would hate for another military family to have their soldier arrive home safely, then to lose them senselessly.